Early polling numbers were released yesterday in the much talked about Republican primary for the open US Senate seat in Texas. The Houston Chronicle had the poll results that include AA legend Craig James… and James’ numbers so far aren’t exactly awe-inspiring. In fact, they’re bad. Really bad. The current leader, Texas state Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, leads the polling at 36%. Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz is in second at 18%. So, where’s James?

Craig James is at… 4% support.

That’s right, 4%. This is horrendously, stupidly low. Looking at some of the other demographics in the race, James has 30% name ID, which seems low for a guy that was employed by the largest sports entertainment company in the world as an analyst for a sport (college football) that is revered by his home state. That doesn’t even account for his playing days at SMU. But then again, SMU fans aren’t exactly huge fans of James; he’s at 23% positive, and 29% negative among SMU grads. The Chronicle report sums it up nicely:

“James, who formally launched his campaign last week, draws 4 percent support. The former SMU Mustang and New England Patriot running back is struggling to overcome two liabilities: he’s largely unknown and he’s unpopular among those who know him.”

As for Texas Tech grads, where James’ son Adam attended and James famously got former coach Mike Leach fired, he’s got a 14% positive reaction and a 26% negative reaction. I actually expected the negative rating to be much higher.

On the bright side, in addition to Dewhurst, Cruz, Tom Leppert (former Dallas mayor with 7% support), and James, there are four other candidates for the Republican nomination, all of whom fall behind James. I feel very badly for those four people.